By 2050, global industry must double its output while slashing resource use by half and CO₂ emissions by 80%. This EPSRC Centre works directly with car, food, furniture, and detergent manufacturers to make that possible. The problem is stark: current industrial methods cannot meet legally binding climate and resource targets. Incremental efficiency gains alone won’t suffice. The Centre tackles this on two fronts—first, rapidly cutting energy, water, and materials in existing production lines; second, redesigning the entire industrial system, for instance by turning one factory’s waste into another’s raw material, using solar energy directly, and rethinking where goods are made and how value is delivered. If successful, the Centre will produce a suite of practical tools—some commercialised, some freely available—that manufacturers across sectors can use to shrink their environmental footprint without sacrificing output. Over five years, it will also train more than 80 researchers and practitioners equipped to lead this transition. The impact is not a single breakthrough but a systematic shift: quieter, cleaner supply chains; less waste; and an industrial system that operates within planetary limits rather than against them.
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By 2050 the global industrial system is committed by international agreements and governments to double its output while only using 50% of current resources and generating no more than 20% of current CO2. Achieving this represents an exciting new industrial revolution, requiring new approaches and new thinking which we term collectively Industrial Sustainability .The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability will work closely with leading companies of all sizes and from all sectors who are already actively preparing for this challenge. The Centre will work on two fronts: rapidly reducing the resource & energy-intensity in the production of existing goods while simultaneously investigating options for a radical redesign of the industrial system. We will build a foundation of projects in 'eco-efficiency' (creating more value using less resource by focussing on reducing use of energy, water and materials), in 'eco-factory' (for example using waste from one process as inputs to another wherever possible), and in 'sustainable industrial system' (conserving resources by for example using solar income, re-distributing what gets made where and re-assessing what and how value is delivered). As we better understand what works and what doesn't, we will develop and deliver tools and techniques, which will be used, by our collaborators to achieve their sustainability goals. Some of these tools will be commercialised and some will be made more freely available. Manufacturers of all types will use these tools to reduce the amount of energy, water and material they use to produce each product. We will work with producers of cars, food, furniture, detergents and many other products to make sure our tools are useful to as many manufacturers and sectors as possible.When we know that the tools do help to improve performance we will broadcast their existence to multiple manufacturers through our network and partners; we will measure how useful the tools are and publish that information on-line.During the 5-year initial life of the Centre we will train over 80 people to the highest standard, preparing them to be academics and practitioners with the leadership skills capable of helping industry rise to the challenge of sustainability
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